Window Seat

watercolor

9" x 12"

Gosh, almost a year since I've posted. Thought I'd restart with a painting I had done of one of the wild cats my mother had rescued many years ago. This was Loveye. The first one rescued, and the last of mom's cats to pass away. She liked to sit in the South window tucked between a keepsake box and a childhood photo of my stepfather. She was devoted to mom, and survived through the advanced stages of mom's Alzheimer's. Which, in retrospect, spared Mom some grief when Loveye passed away. 

Angel on High

Soft Pastel

22 x 26"

Sold

This is Angel. He was part of a feral litter born to a neighborhood cat that no one could catch.  One day I heard a kitten screaming, searched the yard, checked under the deck, but saw nothing. After an agonizing day searching, I finally crawled under the deck and looked down a slender standing pipe with a flashlight.  A tiny screaming face looked back. A fallen Angel.  He was only a few weeks old, and had wedged himself so he couldn't move his paws. In desperation, I lowered a rope with a rag tied to the end. He grabbed onto the rag with his teeth, and I pulled him out.  He was one wet, stinking, screaming kitten: scared but otherwise unharmed.  From that day on Angel was my constant companion until he passed away at age 14 in 2006.   

Studio Pals

photos: Devlin (top) poodle 

         Callie, shitzu mix

I've been busy today with family, and with letting my studio pals in and out, and in and out, and...well, anyone who shares their lives with active pups knows what I mean.  Devlin (top) came from the wonderful no-kill shelter Hearts United in Nebraska.  I'm not sure where he got his unusual name, but since he was 3 when I adopted him, I didn't think it would be right to change it.  The shelter docs had amputated one of his hind legs because of an injury.  He gets around like gang-busters anyway.  Happy guy that he is, I probably could have called him Tripod, and he wouldn't mind.  

Callie came to join the family a year later from the Prince George's County SPCA.  A friend of mine is a volunteer there, and was fostering Callie for the weekend.  The rescue group  labeled her a shitzu mix.  After two years of her joyous company, I can confidently say the other part of the mix is: kamakazi/squirrel stalker/bird catcher/biscuit thief/snuggle monster.